


Family Bonding

by FrozenSnares



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bonding, Developing Relationship, F/M, Sibling Bonding, Swearing, also, meta as fuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-04
Updated: 2015-12-04
Packaged: 2018-05-04 21:34:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5349341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrozenSnares/pseuds/FrozenSnares
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Edric and Devan find out about Shireen's new boyfriend, they insist on supervising them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Bonding

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Veridissima](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Veridissima/gifts).



> Apologies for my hiatus from AO3, while I slaughtered NaNoWriMo. I'm still writing, still plotting more Rickeen, so don't expect me gone anytime soon!
> 
> Massively unedited because I literally just finished.

The silence stretched across the room. Honestly, any reaction was better than this one. Shireen felt like the judgement coming from her two best friends was greater than most of the things they’ve judged her for in the past. Granted, none of those things had the same weight as the statement she just made, but she was expecting something from them. Edric and Devan still had confused looks on their faces, and she just wanted them to say _something_. Shireen tried to encourage a response, giving them a weak smile that was probably more of a grimace. If analog clocks were still a thing, the ticking would have driven her nuts.

Finally, it became too much for her. “Please say something,” she mumbled. Shireen curled in on herself, despite the fact that they were sitting at a table and it felt weird. She longed for this conversation to be taking place on the living room floor, where she had pillows to hide behind instead of half-full coffee cups.

Edric shook himself first. “Something?” he offered weakly. Shireen wasn’t sure if she wanted to hit him or just keep making herself smaller.

Devan smacked his arm, turning to Shireen with a smile that quickly faded. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” he asked.

Groaning, Shireen pushed her coffee around the table. Of course those were the first words out of Devan’s mouth. Devan always found the problems before he found the solutions. She honestly thought that telling Devan and Edric about her relationship would be fine, that they’d even be happy for her. Unfortunately, the protective big brother trait seemed to be sticking with them more than anything.

“He’s your student,” Edric said firmly.

“ _Was_ ,” Shireen corrected. “He _was_ my student. I’m not going to risk academic integrity for anything like that. If anything, I graded him harder than everyone else.”

“Shireen,” Devan warned.

Throwing her head back, Shireen groaned loudly. “It’s not like I’m his teacher!” she protested. “We’re both students. He’s just younger than me.”

“Isn’t that weird?” Edric asked. He turned to Devan. “That’s weird, right?”

“Oh my gods,” Shireen mumbled. She drained the rest of her coffee, leaving her seat to the kitchen of her small apartment. “We’re just dating. We’re never going to be in the same classroom again. I do not need your approval to date someone.”

“But you asked us,” Edric pointed out, taking Devan’s mug and following Shireen into the kitchen. He rinsed out the cups and began washing them. “It means that it matters to you.”

“Oh, definitely,” Devan agreed. He slung his arms behind his head, rocking back in his chair and looking over to Shireen.

“Nope,” Shireen said loudly. She opened up her fridge to distract herself. There was still a container of leftover cake from her birthday cake last week. She pulled it out. “I don’t care what you say. I’m an adult, and I’ll do what I want. Now, do you want some cake?”

“Yes, please!” Edric called, shutting off the water and drying his hands.

Devan, however, wore a devious smirk. “Did Rickon buy it for you?”

“I’m going to kick you out,” Shireen threatened. She pointed a knife at him for good measure. Then, she sliced off a couple pieces onto plates. The apartment was unnaturally silent until Shireen served the cake, and she was sure they were just waiting for dessert before they got on her nerves again.

Sure enough, as soon as both boys had cake, Edric pulled out his laptop. “Alright,” he said seriously. “What’s this kid’s last name?”

“He’s not a kid,” Shireen said firmly. “Stark.”

“Oooo, a Stark,” Devan commented. “I’d say that’s an acceptable marriage for you. I mean, you could have gone higher up the chain, but if he wasn’t so young…”

“I have more knives,” Shireen said flatly, crossing her arms at Devan. Across the table, Edric was typing at his computer, thoroughly enveloped in the screen. At least he was doing something else now. “Can’t we change the topic?”

“Can we change the topic to how ripped he is?” Edric asked. He elbowed Devan’s arm, getting his attention and pointing to the screen. Devan looked over, raising his eyebrows and nodding before clicking on something else himself.

Shireen paled. She lunged across the table in attempt to close Edric’s laptop, but only managed to get frosting on her hand before he snatched it away. Edric moved entirely out of his seat, moving away from the table as he scrolled on his laptop. As he turned to the couch, Shireen saw Rickon’s Instagram open on the screen. Shireen stood up decisively, heading into the living area.

“You’re not taking my laptop from me!” Edric declared loudly.

Shrugging, Shireen continued on. She wasn’t concerned about the laptop. She would just cut off the wi-fi. “Yeah, have fun stalking without my internet,” she said casually.

Immediately, there was a loud commotion of scraping chairs and thunking objects. Shireen rushed over to the router, hoping to stop them in their tracks before anything else happened. Someone snagged at her arm, but Shireen twisted away and carried on. Soon, both Edric and Devan were stopping her. She was just happy that they were both off the internet. Devan’s arms were locked firmly around her torso, trapping her arms down. Edric was feebly trying to straighten her legs. Together, they lifted her up and sat down on the couch together, leaving her stretched out over their laps.

“You just had to be difficult,” Edric said, shaking his head.

Devan nodded in agreement, patting her arm. “Seriously,” he said. “Would you rather us do this now or when you’re not here?”

“I’d rather you never do it,” Shireen shot back, struggling to regain her freedom.

“Not one of the options,” Edric said.

“Can we put forth our effort to a time machine instead?” Shireen asked.

That got both of their attention. “A time machine?” Devan asked. “Why?”

“So we can go back to when I _never told you_ ,” Shireen spat out, trying to roll onto the floor. Devan and Edric tightened their grips, keeping her secure in their laps. “This is my apartment! Let me go!”

“I don’t think so,” Edric said. “Old school interrogation.”

Shireen rolled her eyes. “No.”

“Yes,” Devan agreed. “We used to do it all the time.”

“At a table.”

“You left the table,” Edric said. “What were we supposed to do with the victim escaping?”

Shireen groaned, trying to reason her way out of this one. Both boys seemed intent on using third-grade socializing skills, though, and Shireen did not have the mind to reason with them right now. She just wanted a pleasant belated birthday dinner, something so she could catch up with her friends. There was no explanation for it devolving into whatever this was.

“Why don’t we talk about who you guys are dating?” Shireen suggested. “This is so one-sided.”

“That’s because you’re in interrogation,” Devan said. He nodded his head like it was something completely rational. 

Shireen resisted the urge to kick them. “Fine,” she said. “Go.”

“When did you meet?” Devan asked.

“First discussion two quarters ago,” Shireen responded. “I called his name for attendance and he said ‘here’.”

“Ah, classic romance,” Devan quipped.

Shireen glared at him, but Edric cleared his throat loudly. “When did he start flirting with you?”

“Never,” Shireen said. “He wrote me a note on the bottom of his final essay for the class.”

“Really?” Devan asked. “What’d it say?”

“ _‘Erase this: but I just think you’re kinda cute, and I’m sorry everyone treated you like dicks. Wanna get lunch sometime?’_ ” Shireen recited. “And he left his number.”

“Lunch?” Edric questioned. “Not even dinner?”

Shireen groaned. “Because it matters.”

“It _so_ does,” Devan said. He loosened his grip just slightly, but Shireen was waiting for more freedom before she made a break for it. “Wait, did you call him?”

“Oh, definitely not,” Shireen replied. “Please, I thought you knew me?”

Edric shrugged. He repositioned himself over her legs to trap her again. “Then how did you guys start flirting?”

“We didn’t,” Shireen repeated. She tried to reposition herself mostly for comfort. “Seriously. We crashed into each other and the library after winter break. He just kind of stared at me stupidly for a while, and I tried to leave because he wasn’t saying anything. He chased me through the stacks, though. Then, he asked me out again. Or… he tried to.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Devan asked. He obviously had way more problems with this than Shireen was expecting. He seemed thoroughly confused by all of it.

Shireen sighed, looking away from them. “He didn’t get the words out,” Shireen said. “I gave him my number and told him to call me when he knew what he wanted to say.”

Edric groaned, finally loosening up a bit. “ _Please_ tell me he didn’t text you.”

“He actually called!” Shireen corrected. “And he calls a hell of a lot more than you two do!

“Alright, then why isn’t he here for your birthday?” Devan questioned. He was taking his fake interrogation way too seriously, looking like he was trying to intimidate her even though she was still lying over his legs.

“It’s not my birthday,” Shireen said, becoming exasperated. “My birthday was last week, but both of _you_ forgot.”

Edric looked offended. “I sent you a Facebook message at midnight!”

“You sent that message just before midnight at the very end of my birthday, genius,” Shireen said. “Seriously. Not even a text message. Was that the first time you logged onto Facebook that day?”

“Yes,” Edric mumbled.

He was lying through his teeth. Shireen almost couldn’t stand that they were trying to heckle her when they had both done infinitely worse at being her friends than Rickon had recently. She almost wished that she had chosen to spend the night with Rickon instead of with them today. Even though it was a Thursday, they both didn’t have class tomorrow, and Rickon wanted to take her out for breakfast.

Someone knocked at the door. Edric and Devan immediately perked up. Then, he looked to each other, obviously trying to figure out what they were supposed to do. The moment lasted too long and whoever was at the door knocked again. Shireen cleared her throat delicately.

“Can I go get that?” she asked.

The boys shared another look before looking down at her. Devan shrugged, and Edric followed suit. They both let go at the same time, and Shireen rolled off slowly, hoping not to make them too suspicious. She took her time straightening her shirt and combing out her hair. Edric was already stretching toward his laptop when Shireen raced over to the router and unplugged it.

“What the hell?” he yelled out. “Seriously?”

“It’s for safety!” Shireen called back, stomping over to the door.

“Fuck your safety!” Edric shouted, slamming his laptop shut and crossing his arms.

Shireen stuck her tongue out at them, opening the door. She turned back giggling to find an immensely confused-looking Rickon. He was scowling. His hands were held loosely behind his back, but his face was still screwed up in concentration. Shireen smiled at him, thinking that he looked adorable with his green eyes all scrunched up. “Hey,” she greeted.

“Um,” he started slowly. “Who wants to fuck you safely?”

“No one!” Shireen said quickly. She stepped outside and shut the door behind her. “Just some stupid friends acting like idiots. They’re mad because I turned off the internet.”

Rickon frowned, cocking his head to the side. “Couldn’t they just plug your router back in?”

“Dammit,” Shireen muttered. She turned back to the door and shook the knob. They had locked the door behind her. She turned back to Rickon. “Did I ever give you a spare key?”

Rickon shook his head. “I think there was something about not wanting me to freak you out in the middle of the night,” he said.

Shireen could tell that he was stopping himself from gesticulating. He was holding something behind his back. Even though Shireen was peeved about being locked out of her apartment, she tried to shake off the feeling. “So what are you doing here?” she asked. “It’s late. Did you walk?”

“It’s fine.” Rickon shrugged. He looked sheepish all of a sudden. “I just wanted to give you your birthday present.”

“You gave me a present,” Shireen reminded him. “On my birthday.”

“It’s still your birthday week,” Rickon mumbled. He shrugged again. This time, his hands fell loose, but nothing clattered to the ground. “And I didn’t bring anything. I just wanted to see you.”

Shireen sighed. “Well, I don’t think I’m being let back into my apartment for the night,” she said. Leaning forward, she pressed into his chest, smiling when he brought his hands up to hold her. “So… can I stay over at your place?”

The door slammed open behind her, and Shireen jumped like a frightened cat. “I don’t think so, missy!” Edric called, looking out. His glare immediately changed when he noticed Rickon. “Hey,” he said menacingly. “Take off your shirt.”

Shireen felt her face go a million different shades of red. Rickon looked even more confused now, glancing between Shireen and Edric. She tried to recover, stepping into the open door so they wouldn’t lock her out again. Rickon leveled a look at Edric. “Why?” he asked.

“For science!” Devan called from the living room.

Rickon leaned over, looking into the small sliver of the apartment. Devan was sprawled out across the couch, bent over to better look at Rickon. Shireen could feel the tension growing at the massive stare-down between the three boys. She felt like running, but knew that things would be infinitely worse if she did. Slowly, Rickon’s hand got to the hem of his shirt. Shireen almost didn’t realize what was happening until he reached up to grab his collar.

“Stop that!” she said loudly. Jumping up, she snatched at his hands, bringing them back down. Her balance was off, though, and she stumbled into Rickon. He caught her easily, a playful smile on his face. Sighing, she turned around, trying to think through the situation. “Maybe we should just get this over with.” She beckoned Rickon inside.

Rickon walked straight into her, wrapping his arms around her waist. Shireen tried not to look at Devan and Edric, knowing that they’d be furious. Rickon completely ignored them, leaning down to her ear. “I think you’d actually enjoy seeing me shirtless,” he whispered in her ear. Shireen felt his fingers stretching over her stomach and she hoped that she wasn’t blushing. Rickon chuckled in her ear, leaning over a bit more and kissing her cheek.

Fortunately, when Shireen looked back to Devan and Edric, they both looked pleasantly surprised. Rickon took his time releasing her, letting his hands slowly trace her hips before holding onto her hand. Because Devan and Edric were still taking up the couch, he settled on the floor and pulled her into his lap. As much as Shireen wanted to settle there, she also wanted Rickon to survive the night. She carefully scooted off his lap, and Rickon pouted at her before turning to Edric and Devan. “So who’re these guys?” he asked, sounding a little annoyed.

Shireen sighed, closing her eyes tight. “Edric is my cousin,” she said, “and Devan’s a good family friend. We grew up together.”

Devan’s jaw dropped. “I am _insulted_ ,” he said. He crossed his arms and leaned back on the couch. “Do I mean nothing to you?”

Shireen scoffed. “Considering you spent all evening making fun of me and trying to make me feel bad, I think that’s accurate.”

Rickon snorted, trying to hide a laugh. “What did they do?” he asked.

“I’ll tell you later,” she said dismissively. “Though, they made it all seem like a waste of cake.”

Rickon lit up, getting halfway to his feet. “There’s still cake?” he asked. Shireen nodded, and he bolted into the kitchen. Then, he peeked out sheepishly. “Can I have some?”

“You bought it,” she replied, waving him off.

“It’s still yours,” he called back. His voice was muffled from the distance.

Excess clinking and general noise came from the kitchen, but Shireen ignored it. She had enough to deal with at the moment. Devan and Edric were still giving her hard looks, and she wished she had less to deal with today. Still, her paper was done and it was a bit of a relief to only have to worry about her family trying to give her boyfriend a shovel talk. Rickon returned to the kitchen with a giant piece of cake, and he happily bit into it. Everyone was giving him strange looks that he seemed oblivious to. After eating a few bites, he turned to Shireen with a big swallow.

“By the way,” Rickon said slowly, “you’re out of cake.”

Shireen didn’t even bother to stop the bubble of laughter from escaping her. Both Edric and Devan looked shocked at how bold he was, but Shireen didn’t care. Rickon just kept on eating, offering her bites as he ate. Shaking her head at him, Shireen just waited for someone to break the silence. Edric and Devan weren’t saying anything, though. They just exchanged looks and were communicating off of Edric’s keyboard. Ignoring them, Shireen just nudged Rickon for more bites of his cake, which he happily gave.

Devan cleared his throat loudly. Rickon looked up, scraping the excess frosting from his plate. He licked his fork clean, looking at Devan expectantly. Devan cleared his throat again. “So we’re going to have to supervise this,” he said.

“No,” Shireen said immediately. Rickon’s mouth was twisted to the side, but he seemed to be thinking about it. Shireen refused to be babysat, though. “No.”

“We need to make sure that everything’s fine,” Edric said. “So we know whether or not to tell Uncle Stannis…”

Shireen was seething. Edric and Devan had no control over her, and she would date whoever she wanted. It wasn’t their decision. It would never be their decision. “Absolutely not,” she said. “Now, stop or I’m kicking you out.”

“What about TV nights?” Rickon suggested. He leaned over sideways onto her shoulder. “They can watch the shows with us.”

Shireen hesitated, giving Rickon a level look. While it was a perfectly reasonable suggestion, she wasn’t sure how she’d feel about Edric and Devan sitting in on their nights of binge-watching television. Also, she had a fair number of other concerns. She tried to think of the best way to bring up that issue. “Isn’t that, maybe… inappropriate?”

Rickon snorted. “It’s not like it’s porn,” he said.

Both Edric and Devan alerted to that, their eyebrows disappearing into their hair. Devan recovered first. “I’m sorry, _what_ are you watching?” he asked.

While Shireen was happy to let the conversation drop, Rickon sparked up at it. “The only show with a character that has my name!” he shouted. “It’s the best! Shireen’s in it, too. And there’s fighting and dragons and giant wolves!”

Shireen rolled her eyes, looking over to Rickon. “ _Only show_ , Mister Claims-Every-Rick-On-TV,” she said, hitting his shoulder.

“Okay, but being Rick Grimes isn’t as cool as being Rickon,” he defended.

Shireen conceded to that. It was nice to finally have a character who shared her name. Edric was looking something up on his computer, but Devan still looked confused.

“What show is this again?” he asked.

“ _Game of Thrones_ ,” Edric supplied, scrolling through his laptop. “And they do exist in the show, but _I_ don’t?”

“Ooo, what about me?” asked Devan, leaning over.

“Fuck off,” Edric snapped. “Not important. You have other Devons on TV.”

Devan groaned. “They always spell it wrong, though.”

Edric and Devan quickly got into a debate about whether or not the spelling matters in a verbal situation. It lasted quite a long time, devolving into whether there were more male Devons on television, or if Edric won by claiming anyone ever called Ed. Shireen refused to participate in the argument, knowing that she had no possible way to jump in. Rickon did, though, automatically taking claim of every Rick and forcing Edric to look them up. This, however, only made Edric and Rickon get into another debate about who deserved to be get dibs on the characters called Rick because _It’s in my name, too!_

After quite a lot of squabbling, it was agreed that Edric and Devan would come over to watch _Game of Thrones_ with them, even though they kept trying to cover Shireen’s eyes at the slightest hint of nudity or violence. Shireen always fought them off, distancing herself on Rickon’s other side. During their watching time, Devan and Edric kept up a constant stream of complaining that they didn’t have characters on the show, even though Shireen didn’t see a problem with this at all. 

As everyone got more attached to the show, different debates and arguments sprung up. Devan got mad about his dad having a character of the same name on the show, even though he didn’t. Shireen started debates at every opportunity about lazy writing and the degradation of female characters on the show. She ended up in an uproar.

“Bull. Fucking. Shit,” she loudly declared, frowning at the television. “That’s the biggest piece of crap in the world. What kind of person do these people think my father is? He would _never_.”

“I mean,” Edric started as delicately as possible, “that’s not actually your dad.”

Shireen shot him a sharp glare, and Rickon leaned over and hugged her tight. She softened some, leaning back into him. “I’m done with this fucking show,” she stated. “Let’s watch something else from now on.”

“The season’s not even over,” Devan said sheepishly.

“Fuck this season,” Shireen said. “Rickon’s not even in it, and I hope he never comes back because at least he’ll be _alive_ and not subject to this stupid fucking writing.”

Rickon shushed her gently, pulling her into his lap. Edric and Devan gave up on arguing with her. Devan went to turn off the television, and Edric cowered behind his laptop again. Shireen slumped down into Rickon’s lap, hugging him gently.

“What else do you want to watch, honey?” he asked, stroking her hair.

“Something better than this,” Shireen mumbled.

Edric sat up quickly, almost choking on the water he was drinking. “So get this,” he said, pointing excitedly at his screen, “this show is actually based on a book series, which is superior because _I exist in it_ , but also because you’re still alive in it.”

“I am?” Shireen asked excitedly, bouncing over the sofa to look at his laptop.

“What about me?” Devan asked excitedly.

Rolling his eyes, Edric tapped at the keyboard, looking up the relevant information. “Yes, we all exist, and we’re all alive,” he said. “But Rickon has only been briefly mentioned recently… as living with cannibals?”

Rickon shrugged. “I’ll take it,” he said. “Any word on me actually getting together with Shireen?”

“Because it matters,” Edric mumbled.

“It totally does,” Shireen said. “It’ll even get my dad to like it better.”

Edric groaned, but kept on looking through his laptop. “Um, so nothing canonically, but you have a lot of… _shippers_?” He gave his computer a weird look.

“Fuck yeah,” Rickon said. He held his hand up for a high five that Shireen gladly gave.

Shireen sat up in excitement. She had the best idea, but she was worried about the reaction to it. “Let’s read it,” she sputtered out.

“Yeah, alright,” Rickon said. “You’re just a grad student but let’s read this… how long is this book series?”

“Um… five books so far,” Edric said. “Apparently, there’s going to be seven total.”

Rickon shrugged. “Can’t be that bad,” he said. “I mean, I read _Harry Potter_.”

Devan winced, looking over Edric’s shoulder. “You’re in for a lot more than Harry Potter,” he mumbled. “The page count is…”

“How bad?” Rickon asked, but Shireen’s eyes went wide with excitement.

“About a thousand pages per book,” Edric said.

Rickon and Shireen shared a look. Rickon’s grew more worried, as Shireen started grinning.

“Please?” she said.

“No.”

“Pretty please?”

“No.”

“Come on.”

“We don’t have the time.”

Shireen pouted at him, leaning over to his chest and making small noises of discontent. Rickon was oddly still against her, and Shireen tried to persuade him by leaning into him and pressing up against his neck. She could hear Edric and Devan groaning and muttering, but she ignored them, knowing that she could get her way with Rickon eventually.

“Fine,” he relented.

“Yes!” Shireen jumped up, kissing him full on the mouth. “How great is it that we have characters with our names? Wait! We probably have fanfiction written about us.”

“Nope,” Rickon said firmly. “I draw the line there.”

“But… _I_ could read it,” Shireen mused. She leaned into him again, moving her fingers over his chest. “Maybe there are some good ideas there…”

“Fuck,” Devan muttered, quickly jumping over to Edric’s side. “Please tell me there’s no smut for them.”

Edric clicked hurriedly at his computer, his face falling. “ _Fuck_.”


End file.
